The present invention relates to a transport apparatus for an information-carrying or information-bearing article, especially a card, and, more particularly, transport apparatus for an information-bearing article comprising a conveying device including a belt drive having two guide rollers arranged spaced from each other on a housing and an endless belt guided around the two guide rollers, so that a portion of the endless belt bears on a surface of the information-bearing article, when the information-bearing article travels through the second conveying device; and an opposing retaining member arranged opposite to the at least one belt driver on which the endless belt bears when the information-bearing article is clamped and conveyed between the portion of the endless belt and the opposing retaining member.
A transport apparatus of this type is known and described in DE 196 10 030 C2 and EP 0 623 894 A1, but this transport apparatus is unsuitable for transport of information-bearing articles with high throughput, e.g. with a throughput of about 40,000 to 48,000 of information carriers or information-bearing articles per hour, because at this high throughput no reliable coding of the information carriers is possible.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a transport apparatus of the above-described type that is formed so that reliable trouble-free coding of the information-bearing articles transported through it is guaranteed, even at very high transport throughput and great performance.
According to the invention, the transport apparatus for an information-bearing article, preferably a card, especially a card with a magnetic strip on which information is stored, having a surface strip, comprises a second conveying device including
at least one belt drive comprising two guide rollers arranged spaced from each other on a housing and an endless belt guided around the two guide rollers, so that a portion of the endless belt bears on a surface of the information-bearing article in the vicinity of the surface strip when the information-bearing article passes through the second conveying device;
an opposing retaining member arranged opposite to the at least one belt drive on which the portion of its endless belt bears when the information-bearing article is clamped and conveyed between the portion of the endless belt and the opposing retaining member; and
means for forcing compressed gas, preferably compressed air, continuously or at least periodically on at least a part of a side of the portion of the endless belt facing away from the information-bearing article in order to press the portion of the endless belt against the information-bearing article.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the transport apparatus for an information-bearing article, preferably a card, especially a card with a magnetic strip on which information is stored, having a surface strip, comprises a first conveying device and a second conveying device;
wherein the first conveying device comprises a longitudinally extending conveyor belt having an upper surface and drive elements extending upward from the upper surface and spaced at predetermined distances from each other, the predetermined distances each being larger than a length of the information-bearing article; and
wherein the second conveying device comprises at least one belt drive including two guide rollers arranged spaced from each other on a housing and an endless belt guided around the two guide rollers, so that a portion of the endless belt bears on a surface of the information-bearing article in the vicinity of the surface strip when the information-bearing article passes through the second conveying device; an opposing retaining member arranged opposite to the at least one belt driver on which the portion bears when the information-bearing article is clamped and conveyed between the portion and the opposing retaining member; and means for forcing compressed gas continuously or at least periodically on at least a part of a side of the portion of the endless belt facing away from the information-bearing article in order to press the portion on the information-bearing article during transport;
whereby the information-bearing article is conveyable on the conveyor belt to an entrance region of the at least one belt drive and is transferable to the at least one belt drive at its entrance region.
Further features and embodiments are described in the appended dependent claims and the specification and are incorporated here by reference thereto.